Paul in Cleveland

Wait, I thought Bobby George had spoken out against his dad's anti-LGBTQ statements from a couple of years back? Was there more that I missed? (Certainly possible ...)

Love, love, love this! KJP, I know it's a crapshoot at this point, but roughly what chance do you give this one to be completed? Sort of reminds me of a cross between one of the nuCLEus iterations and The Standard hotel in NYC by the High Line.

Had to grab something from our empty offices yesterday (26th floor of 1111 Superior); here's what The Lumen is looking like these days from up high ...

I had tried to put out of my mind how awful the final product was going to look. This is nothing short of an embarrassment for the city, and at such a visible spot, ugh. If you gave me the choice of having this or an ugly cell phone tower at this spot and no bridge, I'd pick the latter. I'm going to start a campaign to name this the Frank Jackson Bridge, for it encompasses exactly what you get when you settle for things. ?

Here's a shot from Tuesday from the 26th floor of 1111 Superior ... amazing how different it appears without the crane. I keep doing double takes, lol.

I realized a while ago that from my perch on the 26th floor of 1111 Superior, I can see this project ... and have been meaning to take a picture ever since. Finally did this morning, although it's the tiniest bit hazy. The yellow insulation really stands out to the naked eye, more than appears so from this pic!

Looking good!

Here are updates from just now ... from the 26th floor of 1111 Superior. ?

Haha, I took one several days ago but can't find it. I will try to remember tomorrow. Phase 2 doesn't look to have started yet, but this phase is slowly wrapping up.

Well ... wow. I like a lot about the design, but I think it looks terrible in this spot, especially next to the City Club building. It'd fit in wonderfully on the west bank of the Flats or in other areas of downtown. I love the playfulness and color and creativity, but I'm just not a fan of this design in this location.

Wow, good catch! I can hardly even tell anything's happening from up here ...

Looking good this morning from the 26th floor of 1111 Superior!

It was great to get together! I grabbed one quick pic ...

I'll be there!

From yesterday — work on the entrance continues.

From yesterday ...

Yes, I think slightly taller.

From this morning ... from the 26th floor of 1111 Superior.

From this morning.

We went to Elton John the other night as well, and my impressions on the renovation were mixed. We tried to enter from the Tower City tunnel, and there was a massive backup of people waiting to get in (or even to the screening area / metal detectors). Didn't matter whether you went up the escalator or the stairs, there was a long wait. Someone at the bottom of the escalators was losing their cool and began yelling about the length of the line. One guard suggested quietly to us that we could go outside in the rain and walk "20 seconds down" and back in the next entrance for a shorter line. We did so, not a big deal — and once there, another security person said, "if you walk another 20 seconds around the corner, and there's an even shorter line." Again, we did so, and there, we waited maybe 2 minutes to get in. Not a big deal. But I thought the whole concept of the renovation was a better entrance experience. This was hardly that! Once inside, the ebbing and flowing metal panels looked cool and I was impressed. Less so with the funky splotchy paint job on the up escalators (the orange/black/teal on yellow) ... I think that will age very poorly ... if it hasn't already. And the upper level concourses didn't appear any different to me, other than maybe a fresh coat of paint. (Although I don't know that anything could have really been done to them from a structural standpoint.) Anyway, my overall reaction was a bit meh. It's nice, but I don't think it's $193 million nice. More like $25 million nice, lol.

MayDay is correct, the construction never started, no foundation work was done. It was simply paved over ... I was following it very closely back then, near the beginning of my urban design obsessions. ?

I've started to call it Reserve Square 2.0 myself ...

I totally agree with urbanetics_ ... and one other thing really impresses me about Lumen, now that we see its impact from different angles. Some people fretted that it was going to block views of the Keith Building, one of the city's loveliest structures. But I've found nearly the opposite — Lumen draws the eye toward that portion of downtown from so many angles. I think it helps draw attention to Keith, which was a bit overlooked, given it's outlier from the city core location. So a win-win in my book. ??

From today ...

From this morning ...